About
I'm a software engineer, engineering leader, writer, and researcher. I use data, stories, and reporting to understand communities and the people inside them.
I'm sometimes not sure what toput here, because I don't have a linear career arc that fits into a short elevator pitch. I majored in Music Education, and spent the first few years after college graduation teaching music and art to elementary students in Chicago and Quetzaltenango, Guatemala. I had always been interested in web development, but I decided to turn it into a career in 2015. After a tech bootcamp and an apprenticeship, I became a front-end focused software engineer.
Since then, I have been an Engineering Manager, an open source maintainer for Victory, a widely-used React data visualization library, a design system engineer, and an accessibility advocate. Most recently, I had a short stint as a CTO for a legal tech startup, helping a founder turn an idea into a real product. I think people are the most important part of any tech product, and helping the people around me to understand technology is my passion and guiding principle.
Writing & research
When I first became a software engineer, a mentor told me that “all technical problems are people problems.” Today, I think I would rephrase that: all technical problems are systems problems. As it turns out, I'm interested in a lot of non-technical systems, too.
I write about the strange systems we build around work, creativity, technology, and culture. So often, the things we accept as normal are just the result of a system that was built intentionally by lots of small choices over time, and I find it really fascinating to study those choices. In Performance Anxiety, I use data, research, and a bit of software engineering to understand the systems that shape our work and our lives.
Lately I've been researching what twenty years of Ravelry can tell us about the changing economics of independent knitting design, and what the language on tech company careers pages reveals about the industry and the people who run it.
Work with me
I’m interested in writing commissions and opportunities to expand on my existing research. I’m also available for talks and podcast interviews.
I’m open to software engineering and technical leadership opportunities, too. If you have something in mind, I’d love to hear from you.
Send an email